How to keep balance when so much life is fired at us point blank? The social media messages, the bills and obligations, the people demanding our attention and craving our love, all of it crowds in on us and we stand solitary in this world amidst a thousand pushes and pulls. During those blessed moments when we retreat to reclaim some calm, we are sure to return to an even greater volume of noise and necessity.
In these pages you will find wise reflections, reminding us that we are flawed, partial beings. We are not built to be “completists” – as the Rabbis say, each of us leaves this world without half of our wishes fulfilled. We simply will never do everything we could or hope to, and acceptance is part of balance. “The world is too much with us” wrote the poet, but we do have control, we have breath, we have stillness, we have choices. There is joy in what we can do, as opposed to regret in what we cannot.
Each morning we ask ourselves in the daily prayers, “What are we? What is our life?” Those questions begin to restore us to ourselves, to the important spheres of our life, to embrace what matters and what endures. There is no perfect equilibrium; we rebalance every day. The High Holidays and the Jewels of Elul can help.
Rabbi David Wolpe is a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School, Max Webb Emeritus Rabbi of Sinai Temple, and author. @rabbiwolpe
